This Date In Transactions History: Colby Rasmus

It’s been exactly one year since the Blue Jays, Cardinals and White Sox completed the complicated three-team trade that sent Colby Rasmus to Toronto. The Cardinals have an 88-70 regular season record in the last calendar year, plus the 11 postseason wins they earned en route to the 2011 World Series championship. Meanwhile, Rasmus has hit 20 homers and posted a .224/.283/.419 batting line in 543 plate appearances with the Blue Jays. He struggled after arriving in Toronto last summer, but has hit for power so far in 2012, and now has 17 home runs on the season.

I spoke with Rasmus earlier in the month. Here are some of his reflections on the trade, his ability and playing in Toronto:

MLBTR – Looking back, what are your thoughts on the trade?

Colby Rasmus – I’m definitely happy I got traded. I’ve enjoyed my time here since I’ve been here. When I look back at my time here, I feel like I’ve worked hard, played hard and that’s all I can do. So I’m happy with it.

MLBTR – Did you expect to be traded?

CR – I was about 50-50. It was kind of hard to tell because in baseball nobody knows until it happens. I thought maybe there was a chance because of some of the things that went on. Things weren’t meshing very well. I thought there was definitely a chance that I could be moved.

MLBTR – Did you block out all of the reports last summer, or was it impossible to ignore?

CR – I tried not to follow that stuff, but sometimes it’s hard because you see TVs in every clubhouse. They don’t turn the TVs off baseball. So we listen to everything everybody says even though you try not to. With the fans of St. Louis they’re a different breed. They’re all into their baseball. They know every stat, everything that’s going on in the papers. You run into fans everywhere you go. So yeah some of those things I would hear I would try to keep as much of it out of my mind as I could.

MLBTR – What’s the biggest difference between this year and last year?

CR – The biggest difference I would say is comfort level. Here I just feel more accepted, wanted. Nobody bothers me. I just go out and play my game and that way I have confidence in my game. In St. Louis I started to lose my confidence because maybe I didn’t do things a certain way that they liked or wanted. I think it should be between the white lines. The other stuff should be set aside.

MLBTR – How do you evaluate your performance in St. Louis and in Toronto?

CR – I feel like I played some good baseball in St. Louis. I definitely still haven’t played to my potential, but in 2010 I hit .276 with 23 home runs and 60 [actually 66] RBI. That’s a pretty good year I felt. This year, like I said, I’ve been more comfortable with the things I’m doing. That way every day I can have a bit more of a routine that I like that fits me better and makes me confident to play on the field. So I feel like I’ve still got a long way to go. I can still get better. I haven’t had the best of luck at times, but that’s baseball. I’m just going to try to continue to try to learn ways to help myself and help my team play better.

Comments

Hard to believe the Jays landed him for Zach Stewart, Jason Frasor, Octavio Dotel, Mark Rzepczynski and Corey Patterson… basically a bunch of middle of relievers. But flags fly forever… so I doubt any Cardinals fans are complaining.

I don’t think he meant he didn’t want to play there. The answer was in response to whether he ignored the trade talk. He was simply stating it was hard to ignore the rumours last year because the fans are hardcore would approach him about it, where in Toronto the fans basically leave the players alone on the streets.

I didn’t misread it. He wants to play where no one will care if he plays terroble. When Toronto is competing for a World Championship in a year or two, they will let him know if he is playing terrible, too.

Toronto Fans are just as passionate as St. Louis fans, we’re just a bit different. And while the Jays might never supplant the Maple Leafs as the most important team in Toronto, they are beloved and a huge part of this city.

From what I took from the interview Rasmus felt he was getting scrutiny from St. Louis fans for what happened off the diamond. Meanwhile in Toronto there hasn’t been one peep about his dad and all the other stuff he was getting slammed for back in St. Louis.

In Toronto Colby just feels more comfortable here where we let Colby be Colby off the field and only talk about his performance on the field.

“And while the Jays might never supplant the Maple Leafs…”
In 1993, when the Jays were smashing the MLB attendance record and winning back-to-back World Series, the Doug Gilmour’s Leafs went on a ten-game winning streak to open the season. And nobody noticed because Joe Carter was too busy knocking one out of the ballpark.
The Jays, I believe, are the only team that’s ever (briefly) supplanted the Leafs in Toronto.

Just kidding. They love their baseball, but they have yet to forgive baseball for the last strike. Attendance has never completely rebounded from then. So they follow it, but they’re going to watch it from afar.

No, the point Rasmus was making was that Cardinals management (mostly La Russa) didn’t like him ignoring their coaching advice. It’s a fact that his dad consistently meddled in his day-to-day activities on the baseball field and the Cardinals coaching staff definitely didn’t like that. I wish Colby well, but he definitely needs to develop thicker skin because he’s ALWAYS going to be criticized in the major leagues.

Percentage attendance isn’t really that meaningful when you factor in that the dome in Toronto has one of the highest capacities for attendance in MLB. And it was packed every night in the 90s when they were a consistently winning team. Attendance has been rising the past three years, it’s only a matter of time.

Speaking as a Bucs fan, I wish the Cards had kept Rasmus and the Jay/Schu combo has been a much tougher out (well, not Schu so much this year).
And yeah, I imagine TLR would’ve paid even more to get Rasmus’ dad out of his face.

As a Cardinals fan I will always wish him the best. I think shipping him to Canada was the best thing that could have happened to him. Kind of curious how Jays fans feel about his father? Seems Tony has worked his magic again this year. Anybody think it’s a coincidence his slump started shortly after the arrival of his meddling father?

There really aren’t a lot of .900 OPS guys out there (20 so far this year, 17 in 2011 and 14 in 2010), and the ones that are out there don’t typically play up the middle. If Rasmus even becomes a consistent .800-.850 OPS guy, he’d be a core player.

Just think of our own boy, Yadi Molina. He’s a .859 OPS this year, but coming from a spot like catcher, I’d definitely say that’s a “core” player.

I might argue that .859 from 1B or LF is NOT a core player, meanwhile.